Mentors help special needs athletes play baseball

Buena High and Westmont College baseball players gave tips to youths with special needs at a clinic and game Sunday in Ventura.

Rob Varela / VCStar.com

Will Santoyo (left) and Brenden De La Torre, a player on the Buena High junior varsity baseball team, help Caitlin Sanford, of Ventura, as she practices hitting Sunday during a clinic at the Miracle League of Ventura County's practice and game at Buena High in Ventura.

Ventura County Star

Every hit and run scored was celebrated with a chorus of cheering from the packed stands at the Miracle League of Ventura baseball practice and game Sunday at Buena High School.

In its fourth year, the Miracle League of Ventura, along with the Magdaleno Baseball School, offers young people with special needs a chance to play baseball, with Buena High and Westmont College baseball players acting as mentors.

"We are all here because we love the game of baseball," said Buena High baseball coach Mark Magdaleno. "We are able to share with people who normally don't have the opportunity. It helps the special athlete, and it helps their parents, who get to see their young man or young woman do something we take for granted."

But, Magdaleno said, the real joy comes to the more than 125 volunteers who came out Sunday to lead the more than 75 athletes from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in baseball clinics and a game.

Paula Powell, the league's director of events, said some players and their mentors form bonds that last beyond the game.

"A few will go to Facebook or on email to connect with their players," Powell said, adding that the Westmont players volunteered to help with the event after one of the students said it was one of his favorite events.

The Miracle League is a national organization, and the local group puts on events about twice a year, including baseball clinics with a barbecue lunch.

Celie Freeny, of Ventura, took pictures of her son, Isaiah Ries-Freeny, 10, and his mentor, Joey Freshauer, a member of the freshman baseball team at Buena High, as they walked arm in arm across the field to play catch.

"It's important that they feel they are part of what is considered normal, that they are included," Freeny said of her son, who has Down syndrome.

Her daughter, Jadyn Ries-Freeny, 8, said she enjoys watching Isaiah play baseball.

"He's better at running than me," she said.

C.J. Miller, a junior at Westmont, was playing catch with Arianna Nunez, 15, of Oxnard. Nunez has cerebral palsy, and although she must use a walker for mobility, she is pretty good at bat, Miller said.

"She knocks the ball out of the park," Miller said.

Nunez, a student at Pacifica High School said she doesn't participate in organized sports.

"I like having fun playing baseball with a lot of people," she said.

April Spahr, of Ventura, watched her son, Hayden Spahr, 10, hit the special ball off the T-ball stand. Despite becoming agitated by the shouts of people cheering him and flinching at being touched, Hayden, who has autism, was able to earn a run around the bases, proudly sharing his achievement with his mother.

"This helps him a lot to be part of the community and to be part of a team," Spahr said. "This is a small community, and you see people here and there. You learn who their kids are and watch them grow."

Bill Dunlevy, of the Ventura Downtown Lions Club, said the event is in keeping with the group's community-oriented focus.

"It's really a blast to come out and help. It's a really good feeling," Dunlevy said.